Volodarsk Volynsky

Volodarsk-Volynsky (7,800 residents) is a regional center on the slopes of Irsha River valley. The first record of it was in 1545: Oleksandropil (the first name of the settlement) village belonged to boyar O. Pronsky and was named after him. Then in 1607 by the decision of court it passed into the ownership pf Lithuanian dukes of Sapiegas, which made here one of their residences. The new owners renamed the village as Khoroshky (afterwards transformed into Horoshky). The village kept expanding, and in 1617 it became a town, and in ten years it turned into a local trading center. During the Liberation War of Ukrainian people the army of B. Khmelnytsky ruined the castle in Horoshky. In 1793 Russia annexed a part of the Right-Bank Ukraine. By tradition, Empress Catherine II presented Horoshky to known military leader M. Kutuzov. He used to visit his estate in 1802-1805; he organized production of cannon-balls and cannons from local bog ore in Horoshky. Honoring field marshal M. Kutuzov the village was renamed Kutuzivka in 1912-1921; his bronze bust (sculptor H. Postnykov) was set up in 1959; the eighteenth-century park with five hectares of five dozens of two-hundred-year-old oaks and poplars on the bank of Irsha was named after him. In the 60s of the 19th c. they found deposits of quartz and labradorite in the area of Horoshky; however, only the Soviets started excavating them. The experts of the Leningrad Russkie Samotsvety Trust began exploring the deposits in 1932 to prepare the excavation of topaz and quartz. The Volyn expedition organized in 1937 exploited the deposits. In Volodarsk Volynsky there is a unique Museum of precious and decorative stones of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine. The mineralogical collection of museum was founded in 1951; it is based on the samples of unique Volyn morion deposits. The three-room display boasts over 1,500 exhibits of precious and decorative stones and manufactured articles.